Plants

Jesus keeps reaching for plants when he wants to say something plain. A tree is known by what it grows: “every good tree bringeth forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:17). Wildflowers show that worry is wasted effort: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow” (Matthew 6:28). Paul turns to a buried seed to explain what comes after death, saying “God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him” (1 Corinthians 15:38). In each case something ordinary carries a weighty truth, and the garden or the field becomes the lesson. Matthew 6:25-34 is a gentle place to start.

11 verses

Matthew

Matthew 6:28

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

Matthew 6:29

And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Matthew 7:16

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Matthew 7:17

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

Matthew 7:18

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Matthew 7:20

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Luke

Luke 6:43

For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Luke 6:44

For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 15:36

Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

1 Corinthians 15:37

And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

1 Corinthians 15:38

But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

Based on Nave's Topical Bible by Orville J. Nave (1896). Public domain. KJV scripture text, public domain.